Using PayPal

PayPal is an established method of paying for goods and services on the Internet. It protects the buyer as well as the seller and is a completely free and very quick system to use.

I have used PayPal myself as a buyer on the Internet for many years, averaging several hundred purchases per year, from a few dollars to several thousand. I can recommend it without hesitation as a very safe way to make purchases.

1. Using the ‘Add to cart’ button
Customers shop on your site and add items to their cart, using PayPal’s secure site.

2. View cart and go to checkout
When they’re happy with the selections in their cart, your customers proceed to checkout.

3. Review details
Your customers are taken to payment pages on the secure PayPal site. If they want to pay using their PayPal account, they log in and pay in as few as three easy clicks. To pay by credit or debit card without logging into a PayPal account, they fill out the easy payment form.

Your customer will see a summary of their order to review key information, such as the total amount and delivery address.

4. Confirm payment
Your customers see a payment confirmation page and receive an email confirmation. You’ll also receive confirmation of the order by email.

5. Return to your site
After paying, your customers can be sent back to your site immediately to a page of your choice – perhaps a thank you page or your home page. You can set this up in ‘Preferences’ under the ‘Profile’ tab in your ‘Account Overview’ page.

If you are integrating PayPal to your website and your items are listed as being sold in GBP, you have the ability to receive payments from other customers in different countries.

For example, if a buyer in the United States purchases an item from you, they will see the total amount of the payment in GBP. When they are completing the checkout, they will be advised how much they are being charged in their local currency (which in this case would be USD) and this would then be transferred to the GBP amount of the item that they are purchasing from you.

This means that you can sell items and receive the funds in your local currency and your buyers can process payments through your website using PayPal in their local currency.